


Outsider

by CatNerdsOut



Series: Wanderer [2]
Category: Captain Marvel (2019), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Friendship, LT earns her title, Post-Canon, Post-Redemption Arc Fallout, Redemption, Stranded on C-53
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:02:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26193091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatNerdsOut/pseuds/CatNerdsOut
Summary: “We’re going to Earth,” Talos swung a monitor towards her.  It was a brief message sent almost a week prior from Fury that several surveillance cameras captured the image of someone who looked suspiciously like her old commander.  A blurry, but convincing image file was enclosed.“But... that’s impossible,” Carol muttered to herself.
Relationships: Carol Danvers & Maria Rambeau & Monica Rambeau, Carol Danvers & Talos, Carol Danvers/Yon-Rogg
Series: Wanderer [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1901671
Comments: 38
Kudos: 53





	1. Welcome Wagon

**Author's Note:**

> This picks up immediately following ‘Wanderer.’

The small wooden shack was muggy and uncomfortable for reasons beyond the present weather. Perhaps that was why he had not expected to encounter anyone else. He had spent years escaping the notice of others during his travels. Is that why he had so bungled the last leg of this visit?

Had he secretly wished that Vers would catch him? It was an uncomfortable thought. Years of reconciling himself with his past, the whispered lies to himself that it couldn’t control him and he had grown since his previous time on this disappointing rock, overturned in an instant.

“What are _you_ doing here?”

Yon-Rogg turned sharply towards the voice.A tall woman more suitably dressed for the climate than he gaped at him, eyes wide and angry though he couldn’t image why.

“I mean you no harm,” calm words delivered in calm voice that were met with utter incredulity.

“Well, forgive my apprehension given what happened the last time I saw you.”Ah.One of Vers’ people then.She did look passingly familiar.“I’m going to ask you one more time, what the hell are you doing in my shed?”

How would he even start to explain to another, let alone one so utterly ignorant of his circumstances, what he was doing here?He fumbled for the proper beginning when rushed steps and another voice interrupted from outside.

“Mom, you forgot the bug spray.”

 _Mom_ for want of a better name, backed to the open door, grabbing a small cylinder from the other unseen party and shouted back instructions for the unseen accomplice to summon some avatar of rage or some such nonsensical phrase.Brandishing the metal can like a blaster, she stared him down.Yon-Rogg sighed.Events were not proceeding as anticipated.Typical for this planet.Really, he should have expected this.If nothing else, Terrans excelled at upending the plans of others.

“If you knew what this stuff does to wasps, you’d be wise to keep your distance and hold your hands where I can see them.”

He rolled his eyes and lifted his arms only to then be chastised by the woman for the manner in which he complied.“I’ve got a teenage daughter, I don’t need that kind of attitude from you.”Mom certainly lived up to her title.

“You should probably relieve me of my sidearm if you intend to detain me here,” he inclined his head to his side as Mom pursed her lips.She inched forward before darting near to remove his blaster.

“Now,” she instructed as she adjusted her grip around the weapon before leaning against the door frame, “we are going to wait here until S.H.I.E.L.D sends someone out.And I hope for your sake it’s not Fury.”

Yon-Rogg frowned.This wasn’t a name he knew though he barely remembered his encounter with Vers’ companions.Under Starforce regulations they enjoyed limited protections as beings from a non-spacefaring world uninvolved with the war.At least, that had been his recollection of the time.Clearly this woman did not see it the same way.

He eased into a more relaxed stance and settled in for a long, uncomfortable wait. If he cooperated there remained some glimmer of hope that he could talk his way out of the current predicament and make it to the transport location.

* * *

A man in a dark suit and closely cropped hair dropped his bag onto the long wooden table and began picking through his belongings.Yon-Rogg adjusted his posture.His hands were bound behind him, the bindings looped through the spindles of the uncomfortable wooden chair.He had already complied with their instructions.It seemed excessive given the circumstances.

“Thanks for coming, Phil,” the woman perched near the doorway, his blaster still in her hand.From their conversation he learned the woman’s name was Maria.

Yon-Rogg narrowed his eyes at the pair.This man also seemed familiar.

“Phil Coulson,” the man introduced himself, holding out his hand before awkwardly withdrawing it.He then proceeded to offer an apology that sounded more mocking than sincere.“We have to take some precautions since Starforce is back on Earth.”

“I’m not with Starforce anymore, and I haven’t been for years.”

“No kidding? You can just walk away?” Coulson found Yon-Rogg’s gauntlet and began fiddling with the latch.

He clenched his jaw until he could stand the man’s clumsy fumbling no longer.“Please put that down, I don’t have the parts on hand to repair it if you break it.”The gauntlet was set down roughly on the table with a thud.He winced inwardly.

“How’d they take you leaving?”

“The same way you would take someone leaving your organization, I imagine.”Where was this going?

Coulson rummaged in his suit jacket, producing a small paper slab and stylus.“But I thought you were born into Starforce.”

Yon-Rogg realized that despite his earlier thoughts to the contrary, his patience clearly had _not_ been tested enough over the years.Did this planet of rustics really aspired to the intergalactic stage?He schooled his features and tried to draw upon the patience he employed as a teacher.“I was born a citizen of the Kree Empire.I _was_ a member of Starforce.”

Coulson asked other inept questions.Clumsily trying to force the responses together like a child would with pieces of a puzzle.The result was inelegant, distorted.As far as interrogations went, this was almost laughable.Clearly they were no longer in contact with Vers with information this erroneous.And it was just as well that he had already reconciled himself to her continued absence from his life.Apparently he had reserved some faint hope of her being here.Foolish.

“I’ll have to update the file,” he muttered, scribbling onto the paper before tucking it back into his jacket.“So if you’re not the vanguard for a Starforce, or I guess Kree invasion,” he hastily corrected, “what are you doing here?”

He would rather return to Hala and bind himself to the Supremor for the rest of his natural life than to answer that question.“Does it matter?”

“Very much, yes.We like to keep tabs on all our non-local visitors.”

Yon-Rogg studied the man who politely smiled back.This stranger certainly didn’t seem surprised or alarmed that a rogue Kree was sitting before him.“You were one of the men following me in the city several days ago,” he realized.

Coulson shrugged with an affected sheepishness that was also likely part of his act.“Afraid so.”

It was doubtful that any of this was salvageable, but since they clearly were not consulting with Vers about her former commander, he had nothing further to gain with the truth.He might as well try ignorance.They wouldn’t believe it for an instance, but it was better than the humiliating truth.“I was in the area.Thought I might drop by.”

“Just passing nearby,” the words teased but the tone was flat, disbelieving.“I understood there were no space-faring species anywhere near Earth.”

He had left his entire life behind to travel distant stars.He had questioned everything he had once held true after a loss so personally and professionally devastating that he still grappled with his actions.But he refused an answer.He still had _some_ dignity remaining.

“Maybe he wanted to see Aunt Carol,” a new voice, the voice from earlier at the shack, called down from the second level of the house.

Dignity was nothing more than a fleeting illusion anyway.

He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing.There was an old Kree parable about the words of a child condemning a liar.Better to remain silent and not compound his guilt further.His heart rate slowed and the sinking feeling in his gut eased.His eyes opened.Three pairs stared back.

“He’s totally here to see her,” the new arrival whispered to the others.

He had always enjoyed teaching and training children.Their antics and honest questions always provided a refreshing change from the cautious words and customs of adults.But he was certain that of all the children in all the worlds he had encountered and regardless of who she was to Vers, he liked this Terran child, who saw more than she should, the least of them all.

“If that is all, Phil Coulson, I would like to take my things and be on my way.”

“Yeah, I was really just supposed to delay you until a secure facility could be prepped,” Coulson shook his head with mock sympathy and checked his watch.“S.H.I.E.L.D. Asset Retrieval is on their way now.We’re happy to host you during your visit to Earth.”

There must be a misunderstanding here.“I’m sorry, you said _host_?”

Coulson nodded.“It’s a perfectly comfortable facility.And you’ll be remaining with us until such a time as a determination to the threat level you pose can be established.”He rushed over his words at the end.Clearly the Terrans expected it would take some time to decide if he was worth keeping locked up.

Yon-Rogg was definitely going to miss his rendezvous with his return transport.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may as well call this the sequel I least expected to ever post, but things kind of worked out. The idea for very first scene is why I wrote ‘Wanderer.’ Yep, it was always Maria that found him.
> 
> Also, I have been trying to proofread everything for errors, if something slipped by, I would appreciate the heads up.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	2. Detour

A faint ding and a green flashing light on one of the console’s monitors split the stillness on the bridge.Carol flipped to the next page of her magazine.

“Are you going to check that?” Talos asked from the copilot’s chair.

“If it was an emergency,” she answered evenly, “Fury would have used the pager.”

Talos narrowed his eyes.“Just because it’s not an emergency doesn’t mean it’s not urgent.”Carol snorted and told him he sounded like an advice column.“This is the fourth transmission from Earth in a week,” he countered.

“Maybe Monica picked out her college,” Carol mused absentmindedly, “and wants me to zip her across the country for a campus tour.”

Talos frowned, but said nothing.Instead he used huffs and movements to try and draw her eye, to return the conversation to his ongoing campaign that she avoided.She raised her paper shield higher, nose buried in the pages.Silence settled around them accented only by the shuffling of pages.

“We’ve relocated three colonies to New Skrullos in the last month.We can take a break.”

Carol snapped the magazine closed.“Just because we’ve found you a planet doesn’t mean your people are safe.”

“I know that,” he fired immediately, their old arguments well-worn and familiar. 

“Then you know there’s still work to do,” she bit back.

“But when was the last time you went home?” Talos asked in that paternal voice he used on her too often, comforting usually but now she ground her teeth together.“It’s not a failing to look after yourself.Or your friends.”

Carol frowned.Night cycles on the ship usually only had one person on bridge duty.Talos should be in his family quarters with Soren and their girls, not worrying about their lone Terran stray.Or was she a Kree stray now?The thought rattled her and she shook it away.It did little good worrying about things that she couldn’t change.Better to focus her attention on things she could change.

The green light winked out.

“If you’re not going to read them, I will,” he challenged.

Carol pushed herself out of her chair, heading towards the mess, magazine in hand.“Be my guest,” she called over her shoulder.She missed Maria and Monica, but there was still too much work to be done.Lives were depending on her, always depending on her.It was cleaner to avoid all the things she was missing.Warring impulses pulled at her, the desire to share what limited time they had left fought against the need to protect them with her absence.

Every time she visited them she realized how quickly their lives moved compared with how slowly hers did.While she crawled between star systems, her friends sprinted from one milestone to the next.Maria teased while she had gained crow’s feet and grey hairs, Carol looked the same as she did in basic.Good-natured jokes from a best friend not meanly meant, and yet all it did was serve as a reminder how very un-human she felt.She caught her reflection in a glass surface.How did Kree age?

She returned to the bridge with a snack to see Talos hastily entering inputs into the navigational computer.“Change of plans?” She asked with a casual lilt that took far more effort than it should have.He was too skittish with his soft cursing at an incorrect keystroke for this to be a routine detour.

A weight formed in her stomach.Something was wrong.

“We’re going to Earth,” he swung a monitor towards her, all four messages queued up.

Something was definitely wrong.

She set her food aside and began with the oldest, sent almost a week prior.It was a brief message from Fury that several surveillance cameras captured the image of someone who looked suspiciously like her old commander, a blurry but convincing image file enclosed.

“But... that’s impossible,” she muttered to herself.

“What’s that?” Talos asked half-listening, his attention still focused on the ship’s controls.

She spoke mostly to herself.The scattered facts failing to combine to create a satisfying picture.“If it’s a Kree invasion, they wouldn’t send a lone Starforce member for recon.They’d send, you know, a spy. Someone who wouldn’t get noticed. And if it’s vengeance, well, the Kree don’t indulge emotions.”

Yep, the Kree were all about suppressing those pesky emotions.What better way to control their quadrant of space than to lock away any feeling that might cause them to care about anything other than their unholy computer program?Or anyone? Especially anyone.

At this, Talos looked up.“As the only person in this room who has spent the better part of my life on the run from the Kree, which I’ll have you know is based on a difference of opinion that occurred a millennia ago, I can safely say that they are just as capable as any other species of, as you would say, ‘carrying a grudge.’”

_Okay, one point to the Skrull._

“So you think it’s revenge he’s after?Years later?” She asked turning back to the console.It was possible, she supposed.For all his sermons on controlling emotions, she had seen him frayed at the edges more than once.How often did she want to pull that thread and see him unravel?

“I didn’t say that,” he gestured towards the next oldest message.

Carol rolled her eyes.“This one’s Monica and it _is_ about campus visits.”

“That’s good though, right?Younglings need to eventually leave the nest.”

“Somehow I doubt you’ll be saying that when it’s one of yours,” she smirked.Everyone had seen how his oldest made eyes at one of the other Skrulls her age.Talos coughed uncomfortably. “And it’s not exactly a reason to divert course,” she added.

She pulled up the third message which included transcript of a call between Monica and Coulson.Details were vague but a man was found on Maria’s property.Why did she need to call S.H.I.E.L.D.?Quickly she scanned the final message her eyes skipping over most words and barely comprehending the rest. _‘Kree commander... in custody... cooperating... detained...’_

“What the hell is going on?” Her eyes shot over to her copilot.He was too focused on setting their altered course.He was tense, a taut string that would snap with a bit more effort.She had seen him calmer in firefights.But skirmishes were honest things.You couldn’t focus on spinning a lie with blaster fire aimed your way.And Talos wasn’t as good of a liar as he liked to pretend.She narrowed on him and he shifted under her scrutiny.“You know something about this,” she realized.

“Well, ah, you see,” he tried and failed to sound nonchalant.It only made him seem guilty.“Probably not.It’s nothing, really.”

“Talos?” She sounded a bit too bright, a bit too cheery for the middle of the night.

“Hmm?”

She pointed at him, channeling her power into her index finger.It glowed slightly.It was overkill.Once she would have been rebuked for such an unnecessary display of her powers.There was no point in making threats she would never carry out, but he was hiding something and it felt good even if it was petty.“You are going to tell me what you know.”

Talos gulped.

_One point to the Human-Photon... whatever she was._

“Alright,” he relented, “I wasn’t going to tell you, but I have a scout at Polus Station near the Crimson Shoal.A couple months ago my guy mentioned this business with his family.”And from there Talos wove the tragic tale of the nameless noble Kree who came to the family’s aide.A truly fantastical story if one could believe a word of it.But that didn’t mean it had anything to do with... _him_.

“Okay, but there are literally billions of Kree out there.Surely more than a couple left the Empire and this guy sounds about as far from the commander as you could get.”

“So there are a lot of ex-Starforce commanders pining after a woman called Vers?” He barked out a sardonic laugh.

“What did you say?”The stone in her stomach leapt to her throat, choking her.

“That was my reaction too, but Drovk heard it straight from the guy.”

Human-Photon-lunatic.That’s what she was.Because now she was hearing things.It didn’t matter that she had once yearned for such a thing so much she thought she would catch fire.At its core the hope was a false one, the emotions themselves as fake as her stitched together memories.An ounce of truth covered in lies.The fruit of a poisonous tree was still tainted, just like her feelings for him.

But damn, she did wish he was out there pining after her, as insane as the idea was.It was sweetly satisfying, the image of him wandering the universe missing her.The thought made her giddy even if it was absolutely preposterous.But then the sheer impossibility hit her with the force of an explosion, leaving her cold and empty.

She wasn’t sure how long had passed with her staring wide-eyed and unseeing out into the abyss, but eventually her world blinked back into focus. She shifted her eyes back to Talos. He held his hands up in mock surrender.“Look, I’m not going to tell you how to feel, but since we left your home system in Mar-Vell’s cruiser, you’ve never even referred to this guy by name.”

Well, that was completely untrue and she opened her mouth to say so.

“Not once,” he cut her off.“You said once he was the closest friend you had the entire time you were with the Kree.”

“He was my only friend,” she hissed through clenched teeth, “or so I thought,but it was all a lie.”

“Maybe it wasn’t _all_ a lie,” he offered.“It’s been years.People can change.”

“I can’t believe you’re sticking up for him,” she retorted.Pinning all of this on the idea that his agent had befriended the same person who was now stranded on Earth seemed destined for disappointment.

“Yeah,” he chuckled.“Well, stranger things have happened.”

She quirked an eyebrow.“Have they?” She wondered if he was serious about that.This ranked pretty high on any sort of list.

Talos shrugged.“Maybe.”

Carol read through the final message again, slower as she paused on each word.And then a third and a fourth time just to check she hadn’t missed anything.No name was mentioned.This was stupid.Talos was clearly crazy thinking her old commander had undergone some quest of atonement and was now sitting in a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility back on Earth.And she fared no better allowing her mind to spin wild with the idea.

 _Commander is it?Is that all I was?_ Only her own mind could conjure that aggravatingly smug, sarcastic tone after all these years. This was so stupid.

There was a way to clear all this up now without wasting days diverting their course to Earth.She had her communicator.Presumably so did he.One call and this would all be cleared up and Talos could reset the controls to their next stop on the Skrull reunion tour.

But then she would know with complete certainty he was back on Hala, happily settled at Starforce as he taunted her lack of sense.Because of course Talos was wrong about whatever he had heard from his contact at Polus Station.And the strange flutter of wings in her chest was nothing more than the foolish lingering hope that she hadn’t been so utterly and completely deceived for six years of her life.But then he’d know she had been thinking about him.Yon-Rogg would know she was thinking about him.

_There, that wasn’t so hard._

Shut up.She bit down on her lip, grabbing her snack and yanking irritably at the bag as she resolved to put the _commander_ out of her thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m actually pretty pleased with this one. Fingers crossed though, because the next one has been a slog. Encouragement is always appreciated.
> 
> The use of ‘un-human,’ which irritated my autocorrect to no end, was deliberate because of the Inhumans series, also it mirrors the term un-Kree which is mentioned later.
> 
> Other fun facts: Drovk was a typo but I thought sure, why not? Polus is the Roman name of the Titan Coeus meaning ‘intelligence.’ Crimson Shoal is a rip-off of the Maroon Sea Nebula from Mass Effect.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	3. Missed Call

“Do you want to take a shuttle?” Talos asked when they set the cruiser in orbit around Earth.

Carol shook her head.“It’ll probably be easier for me to just fly down.I’ll come back for a shuttle if...”

If what?If she was bringing someone back to the ship?Where did _that_ thought come from?It was utterly insane.Also it was never going to happen because this Kree being held on Earth was a complete stranger she had never met, and if she _had_ met them the last place she would ever take them would be to Mar-Vell’s ship.

The panic must have shown on her face.

“Do you need me to come with you?”He asked gently, like she might break.

Carol shook her head.“Stay with the others.I’ll find some toys for the kids while I’m down there.”

He placed a hand on each shoulder.“It’s going to be fine,” he encouraged.She didn’t deserve him as a friend.

“Thanks Dad,” she bit out with a wry smile.

“Carol-” he started.

“I’m okay, really,” she mustered more confidence than she felt and started towards the airlock.“I’ve got this.”

Talos tightened his grip on her shoulders and looked at her seriously, the same intense stare he gave his troops before they embarked on rescue missions.“You remember what we’ve been doing these last few years.”

“Finding lost Skrulls, yeah.”

“Not just that.We’ve been finding lost _people_.”

She knew Talos wasn’t a man meant for war.Conflict had molded him into a general out of a necessity, but in his heart he was a man of peace.Still, Carol balked at the implication.“You have completely lost your mind if you think he’s one of our lost sheep.”

“It’s just a thought,” he shrugged and released her arms.“And we could always do with an extra pilot.”

“Soren would freak if she knew what you’re suggesting.”

“She brought it up first,” he beamed proudly.“Just don’t make up your mind until after you’ve talked to him.”

Carol frowned.“You’ve got a lot riding on the hope that it’s actually, you know, _him_ and not some other random Kree in that cell.”

“What can I say?” He crossed his arms over his chest and smiled with an easy bravado.“I’m an optimist.”

“Here goes nothing, I guess,” she stepped into the airlock.

It felt good to fly.To _really_ fly.Unfettered by controls and a metal cage, the ability to simply tear through the night sky still thrilled her.Carol allowed herself time to luxuriate in the freedom that the isolation provided.It was time to lay down her burdens if only for a minute and simply be... weightless.She sent sparks into the dark, tiny fireflies dancing out around her.This was where she belonged, blazing among the stars.

On Hala they called her too emotional.Yon-Rogg’s constant mantra to master her emotions an ever present drumbeat in time with her pulse.With the Skrulls she always felt too reserved compared to their open nature.Lives spent on the run together led to fast trust.They trusted each other implicitly.The Skrull resistance bred an openness between each of them that she felt ill-equipped to share.

Wherever she found herself she was an anomaly.Always set a little apart, a little alone, a little outside.Usually it was fine.Sometimes it wasn’t.

She took the long route to Maria’s home, circling the planet twice before landing in a flame.Monica flew out of the house with a loud whoop.

“Hey LT,” she called out.“Who’s the school of the week?”

Monica rushed in for a hug.“I’m thinking N.Y.U.”

“Nice.What did your mom say?”

“That it was too far away,” Monica let out a resigned sigh.

Carol laughed, hooking her arm with Monica’s as they crossed the yard towards the porch.“She’s going to say that for anything that’s not in-state.Just remind her she did the same thing to her parents.”

“Except I couldn’t help where I got stationed whereas you have your pick of excellent _local_ universities,” Maria stood at the door.Carol rushed over to greet her.

“You see what I’m dealing with?” Monica looked to Carol for help.

“You know I bet they’ve got a university set up on New Skrullos by now,” Carol offered.

“Cool!” Monica grinned.

“Carol!” Maria yelled.

* * *

Carol flopped into a kitchen chair.“Okay Maria.Tell me everything.”She could hear Monica stomping around upstairs, irritated that she was herded upstairs with merely a goodnight and a promise that Carol would still be there in the morning.

Maria grabbed two bottles from the refrigerator, popping off the caps and joining Carol at the table.

“Honestly, there’s not much to tell,” Maria then shared to surreal events of the morning she stumbled on one of Carol’s old squad in her shed.“Then Coulson took the guy and said for you to call once you got here.”

“It was Yon-Rogg, wasn’t it?”

“That was your commander, right?The one with the yellow eyes?”

Carol nodded.

“Yeah, that was him.”

“Shit,” Carol hissed.

“He’s cuter when he’s not holding a gun in your face,” Maria’s lips curled into a grin.

Carol sputtered, wide-eyed, “Maria!”

“What?” Maria laughed at her.“I may be a mother, but I’m not dead.And don’t think you’re off the hook for all those comments about my baby going out of state for school.”

It was so easy to get drawn into her banter and pretend for a moment that a very dangerous, very alien operative wasn’t in a holding cell waiting for Carol to interrogate.She had the fleeting idea of visiting more.Maybe Talos had a point and she should return more often.The universe was vast, but she was her own faster than light engine.Maybe she should learn her way around navigational charts.After she dealt with her former commander, then maybe.

Maybe then returning to Earth would start to feel like coming home.

“What’s he doing here anyway?” Carol struggled to change the subject.

Maria looked at her pointedly.“Maybe that’s a question you should ask him.”

“You don’t get it, Kree don’t just go rogue.”

“Mar-Vell did.”

“That was different.”

Was it different?Maria asked her the same question her mind rebelliously supplied.

“To go from a Starforce commander to a traveling vagabond in five years with no connection to the Empire, it’s crazy,” she explained.She struggled for an equivalent comparison.“It’s like buying a new car within ten minutes of entering a dealership.”

“Some people do buy new cars within ten minute of entering a dealership,” Maria offered pointedly.

Carol protested, “It’s not the same.”

Maria looked unconvinced.

“It’s not,” Carol insisted.“Kree live longer.They measure life spans in centuries, not decades.Look, I once asked what the average length of a courtship was.It’s ten years!”

Maria cut her off.“Why were you asking about Kree courtship?”

Carol colored.“Not the point!”

Maria raised an eyebrow and looked as if it was very much the point.

Carol barreled on ahead.“I’m saying even an average Kree doesn’t change their mind quickly and Yon-Rogg is one of the biggest Krees that ever Kreed.”

Maria raised a skeptical eyebrow.“Do you hear yourself right now?”

He wouldn’t change his mind.The proper words eluded her but she knew with complete certainty that there had been a mistake.He would never betray the Supreme Intelligence, would never question their persecution of the Skrulls, and would never return to Earth.

“It can’t be him,” Carol swore, ignoring the look Maria gave her.It bordered too closely on sympathy.“I’ll prove it.”She pressed her lips together and began typing into her communicator.Being correct became more important than saving face.“Answer, damn it,” she hissed as the call went unanswered before closing the channel.

“Does S.H.I.E.L.D. know how to answer the space phone?”

“I wasn’t calling S.H.I... shit,” she leaned back in her seat.“They took his communicator.”

“One of the first things,” Maria nodded.

Carol held her hand out as Maria slid the second bottle across the table.Carol caught it and raised it to her lips.“He’s really on Earth isn’t he?”

“Yep.”

Carol groaned, setting aside her bottle then dropped her head onto her folded arms.

“You know,” Maria suggested after a beat, “people can change, particularly if something big enough happens.Even this guy.”

A huff answered.

“I mean look at you.You did a real three-sixty in six years.From Air Force pilot to space soldier back to-”

“You can’t say back to pilot, I fly without a ship,” Carol’s muffled voice cut her off.

“I wasn’t going to, not with the space spandex and all.It works for you though, this whole,” she gestured, “saving the universe... thing.”

Carol raised her face and eyed with a hint of mock irritation and propped her chin on her crossed forearms.“I hate it when you’re right,” Carol finally conceded.

“Well, you should be used to it by now because that’s pretty much all the time.”

Carol sat up, feeling suddenly weary and restless.“I’m going to have to see him,” a resigned grumbled.She wasn’t getting out of this.

“But not today,” Maria reminded, then held up her bottle. Carol mirrored her, clinking the bottles together.Yon-Rogg could wait a while longer. He wasn’t going anywhere.

* * *

The air smelled cleaner here.His escort had bound his hands and blinded his eyes with a hood for the duration of their trip from the homestead to his current cell.And while he did not know exactly where on C-53 he currently was, from the lack of windows in his room and the crisp, clean air that reminded him faintly of the recycled air on starship, Yon-Rogg gathered he was being held deep underground.

Despite his current circumstances, he felt little cause to repine.His training prepared him for confinement for far longer stretches of time.He was fed and well treated and as he lacked a planned destination after visiting C-53, he allowed himself to simply exist from one minute to the next unburdened by the weight of expectations or timelines.

They had given him no deadline for his release or any information beyond when he could expect his next meal.And yet he had reason to hope.Beyond reason it lingered, a small ember that grew brighter.

Two days prior one of the guards rushed in holding his gauntlet.“Why is it lit up like that?”They asked while thrusting the communicator in his face.It was receiving a transmission, he explained though he was unable to accept the request before the link was severed and the guard left with the device in hand.

He neglected to share with them that he caught the address of the sender.

Apparently they were in contact with her after all.Why else would Vers try to contact him?

He bit back a smile.He was half-mad with terror and the other half with hopes.Maybe she would look at him and see all that he had become in her absence.Maybe she would leave him to rot. Focus became a challenge in the past two days. Years of meditation exercises had bled away leaving restless anxiety in their wake.

The door opened, too soon for a meal.His eyes caught a familiar form and all expectations shattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maria and Talos are my MVPs. One more to go. Thanks for reading!


	4. Interview

“Vers,” he stood as she entered the room, but said nothing more.A stray word would break the scene before him, leaving him alone in an empty room.She strode into the room like a flame, burning red and blue and gold.

“It’s Carol,” she chided sharply gesturing for him to join her at the small table.“Carol Danvers.”

Yon-Rogg frowned.He had known her as Vers for over a decade.To the rest of the universe she might be the bright, shining Carol but to him she had always been the smirking Vers.

“How about Dan-Vers?” He offered.

She tilted her head to one side, considering.“Close enough, I guess,” she shrugged.

His eyes flicked off to the side behind her, deliberate.Carol craned her neck around and rolled her eyes at the small security camera before she fired a photon blast at it.

“Better?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Much.”

“Is that the only one?”

“Yes.”Brief.Succinct.Unhelpful.

If Carol supposed the removal of any listening ears would result in him immediately spilling words, she was wrong.Fine.She could wait him out. Probably.With affected disinterest and began picking at her fingernails.She paused.She stopped.The intensity of his stare burned.She was uncomfortable.But so was he.Could he hear the roaring thunder of her heart as it raced?Or was she hearing his?

“So what brings you to C-53?” She asked with a lightness that died before it reached her eyes.

“Would you believe I got stranded here?”At least he answered her in more than a single word.

“You?” She snorted.“No.Not unless you completely fell apart in my absence.”

Yon-Rogg looked away quickly, eyes locking on the table as an anchor.Everything in his posture screamed tension, like a coil about to snap.He could only cast short glances her way as if facing Carol head on would be his undoing.

“Oh,” her hushed response weighted with awkwardness.Sparring would have been easier than this.At least the hits would have been cleaner and they could see when the next attack would launch.She felt at a loss how to navigate the conversation. 

“I hear you left Starforce,” she fought releasing a groan.Why was she acting like this was a normal conversation?

He hummed.A pause stretched on and despite herself she was about to repeat the comment.

“The official report of the events of Torfa and C-53 were... quite contrary to my firsthand experience,” he began evenly.

Anger flared.“Really?They lied and you were surprised?”

He shrugged with a noncommittal gesture though sweat gathered at his temples, the only evidence that his calm demeanor was a flimsy facade.

“How bad was it?” She asked.

“Was what?”

“The lie.How bad was it?”She repeated.

“Weapons malfunction and emergency repairs on an Accuser ship during a training exercise near T-97.”He still refused to meet her eyes.The destroyed ship had never even been mentioned in the reports.In the weeks that followed, he wondered what lie the military told the crew’s houses.Were the soldiers granted warriors’ honors or simply deleted from the rosters?

Carol let out a low whistle.“That’s one hell of a lie.Maybe not the worst I’ve heard though,” she added with a sneer as his gaze remained fixated on the wood grain.

Disappointing, she thought.She used to spark a reaction out of him just by a stray comment.Yon-Rogg looked... different.Not exactly broken, but lacking the haughty scorn she associated with him.It troubled her that she was unable to recall if he had actually treated her as inferior or if hurt and bitterness had twisted her recollections into something harsh and jagged.But Carol refused to examine it too closely.Betrayal poisoned everything, even her happy memories of him.Was she happy there?She must have been.Or it wouldn’t have hurt so much.It wouldn’t _still_ hurt so much.

Frustration bubbled up.She didn’t even try to force it back down.She allowed it life, letting it spill over and reveling in it.She had rehearsed this fight in her mind intermittently for five years and he simply sat there refusing to engage.Time for a direct approach.

“You lied to me,” it sounded less righteous fury and more broken than in her head.

“Yes.”Simple.Direct.Just as unhelpful.His head remained down.

“Were you ever going to tell me the truth?”

“I don’t know.”Was that shame for himself or pity for her?

“You don’t know?” She bit back, rage surging, fingers igniting as they gripped the edge of the table.

His eyes flashed as he finally met her gaze.Her answering smile was severe, almost cruel.Finally, _there_ he was.This was the Yon-Rogg she expected to see: defiant and proud, someone to antagonize her and remind her how utterly right she was in sending him back in that broken vessel.That broken deserter who sat in his chair just a moment before made her feel uncomfortable and uncertain.She thought she might bathe them both in fire to keep that stranger at bay.

Yon-Rogg glowered at her, ignoring her hands even as the energy crackled around her fingertips.“I did what I thought was correct based on what I knew and believed at the time.You know the circumstances.I’m sure you have your share of regrets in your past.”

“Sure, and most of them involve the Kree,” Carol spat.He looked away again.A puff of air left him and his shoulders sagged, like whatever resistance he had been holding onto escaped with his breath.

“I’m sorry I destroyed your life, Vers.”She could barely hear him over the blood rushing in her ears.

Starlight winked out.She didn’t correct him.

The worst of it all was that a part of her could understand the circumstances of a carefully crafted lie.In war there wasn’t the luxury of discarding a weapon because of undesirable origins.Reforging the weapon for their own purposes typified everything about the Kree doctrine. And despite how deeply and utterly wrong the Kree were in their conflict, Carol knew how deeply and utterly they believed in the righteousness of their fight.Once she had even believed the same.But her anger towards the collective Kree burned away years ago.What she grappled with was all that remained between them.She may have forgiven the Kree in general for what was done to her.If pressed, she could even admit to understanding their actions.How much of their every thought and decision was born from their damned zealotry that kept them in blind obedience to the Supremor?

But the entire Empire hadn’t dragged her back to Hala and spooned her lies that she had eagerly consumed while she starved for some memory or truth to cling to.And even with him repentant before her, she did not know if she could forgive the one person she trusted above all others who had deceived her more than all others.Everything she had believed was a lie.

Talos’ traitorous words floated back. _Maybe it wasn’t all a lie._

Silently she cursed Talos and his misplaced empathy.He would know if she just walked away refusing to hear what Yon-Rogg had to say for himself.Talos would say nothing, would offer no condemnation, but his eyes would accuse her: _What if you had done the same to us?_

One last try.

“So... what have you been doing for the past five years?”She tried again, softer, more tentative.

He studied her, his own face carefully blank.Carol quirked an eyebrow at him, playful and challenging and familiar, an echo from a time when life was simultaneously more simple and more complex.He exhaled a sharp, quiet laugh, her lips curling into a small answering grin.

Nothing had been fixed, but it was a starting point.A first step.

The years poured from his lips.He began with his return to Hala and how he was torn between hoping and dreading the damaged craft would explode before reaching to the capital.She listened with wide eyes as he shared his final meeting with the Supreme Intelligence and all that followed.He spoke of his doubts, his rejection of Starforce and his home.He had truly left the Empire then, the realization broke like waves on a shore.He told of his travels that eventually led him to the very planet where she had discovered her own great secret.She wondered if he had been looking for her or looking to uncover his own revelation about himself.Maybe it could be both.

“And that’s the sad tale of how a commander of Starforce became un-Kree,” he grimaced at the word and tried to cover it with a laugh, folding his hands a resting them on the table.His knuckles were white.There was nothing relaxed in his posture.

Shortly after she had begun on Hala another trainer had warned her against acting un-Kree.Yon-Rogg had explained to her that was the worst possible insult.An all encompassing word that could be liberally applied to any number of vices or crimes.To be selfish, emotional, even merciful could all be classified as un-Kree.It was second only to sacrilege against the Supreme Intelligence.Maybe it was worse since the Kree predated their Supremor.

A hand rested on top of his.“I wasn’t a very good Kree either.”

His grip relaxed a fraction.

“That was probably for the best,” he teased softly, mouth twisting with a smirk.His gaze remained locked on their hands.

“Yeah.”

They sat in silence for several minutes, each wrapped up in their own regrets and doubts.

“Talos thinks I should bring you with us,” Carol blurted out.She looked at their hands.Why hadn’t she moved her hand earlier?

He eyed her warily.“And what do you think?”

She fumbled for an answer.“I think you probably shouldn’t be trapped on a planet you think smells like algae.”

He slid his clasped hands away, off the table and into his lap.Her hand dropped onto the table, nails knocking against the grain with a dull thud.

“I don’t need your pity, Vers.”

“I know you don’t.I just,” she stammered, “I don’t know.Maybe I don’t want to leave you here either.”

He studied her, searching for some tell or twitch of her lips that would shatter the silence.Something to give away if this was a joke at his expense; if she offered friendship with one hand while the other was primed to strike.She looked horrified.She hadn’t meant to say it, at least not yet.But there it was on the table between them and she couldn’t take it back.Did she want to?

He nodded, weighing the offer.There it was.Everything.To go with her was to leave with the Skrulls.If he couldn’t stomach it, if his traitorous turn was only to turn his back on the Kree and not towards something greater, it was best they both know now.

Sometimes, despite his best efforts and lectures on control, his emotions tumbled out and fell on his sleeve.Other times, times like this, he remained closed off, stoic.Carol waited, giving him what limited privacy was available by sweeping her gaze over the spartan room, eyes anywhere but on his face.

“And what are the terms of this rescue?”Her eyes shot back to his.

“Terms?” She parroted, confused.

“Am I to be your prisoner?An outsider with a slightly larger cell?Will I be your solder?Will you be my commander?”

“Oh, um.No, I guess you’d be more of a partner.”Like before, but different, she hoped.Though she refused to allow herself to continue contemplating exactly how she hoped things would differ.

“Partner?”His tone was even, giving nothing away.

“Yeah, like help fly the ship and when we reach a settlement help with the rescue op.”

It was more than his wildest expectations could conjure up, but hope had turned him foolish.He pressed his luck.

“Is that all?”His eyes flashed.

“What do you mean?”

“Are those the only way in which we will be partners?Or are there other opportunities for teamwork?”He leaned forward slightly and she felt helpless but to mirror his actions.The air between them felt charged and she felt a current run down her arms and twine around her fingertips.

Oh shit.Talos was right.Yon-Rogg really had been on Polus Station waxing on about her like some love struck fool.This was such a stupid idea.She was in so much trouble.But a faint smug grin stretched over his face as heat rushed up her neck and she couldn’t help but answer his smile with a mischievous gleam in response.“Maybe?”

She had spent years out of his orbit only to voluntarily throw herself back in.Carol laughed.“This is such a terrible idea.”

“The worst,” he agreed, eyes glinting with something dark and wonderful.“So partners,” he repeated, caressing the word.Letting its weight fall down with a hint of challenge.He nodded.“When do we leave?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well there it is. I hope it lived up to expectations!
> 
> There is a part 3 currently in progress that is alternating between Carol and Yon-Rogg since I couldn’t end it here.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!


End file.
